Utah boy tells how he was found by rescuers in mountains

Malachi Bradley disappeared on Sunday while hiking with his family near the Wyoming border. He was found more than 24 hours after originally getting lost looking for mushrooms near a mountain lake.

When his dad couldn’t find him after 30 minutes, he reportedly hiked back down to the auto, and drove to area with cellphone reception in order to call 911.

The boy was cold and hungry but otherwise healthy when he was picked up on Monday afternoon.

The region is easy to get lost in and sudden changes in weather can be risky, authorities said. The residual warmth helped him get through the night, though it also threw off infrared heat detectors used by the search teams as it got dark, police said.

Temperatures reached the upper 30s that night, but rather than panic, Malachi began figuring out what he needed to do to stay alive, KSL reports.

Molly Bradley, the boy’s mother, was overcome with emotion after news broke that her son was found.

Uintah County Sheriff’s Corporal Brian Fletcher told the Salt Lake Tribune that trained personnel from neighboring counties as well as the Ute Indian Tribe are traveling the area on ATV’s searching for the boy.

Ravell Call/AP Malachi Bradley is carried from a helicopter before being reunited with his family.

The search resumed at dawn Monday with added reinforcements from the U.S. Forest Service, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, and Rocky Mountain Rescue Dogs.

Paul Lake, where the Bradleys had been camping, is near the top of a almost 10,000-foot mountain, though the terrain around the lake itself is relatively flat.

“It’s like finding a needle in a haystack”, he said. “I sat there most of the day, waving at helicopters”.